


But How Do I Follow?

by sambethe



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-13
Updated: 2014-01-13
Packaged: 2018-01-08 15:27:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1134292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sambethe/pseuds/sambethe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been like this since flight school.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But How Do I Follow?

**Author's Note:**

> The majority of this was written between the S2 and S3 hiatus and any lines you recognize come directly from 01.12 - Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 1.

Lee walked away from the dance floor, his heart still racing and his fingers tingling from the sensation of Kara's skin beneath them. When he reached the bar he ordered himself a glass of water and turned to watch the way the cut of her dress accentuated the curve of her hips.

He smiled to himself as he remembered the feel of those hips under his hands. 

Kara chose that moment to look up and caught him watching her. She winked at him before turning her attention back to whatever story it was Baltar was regaling her with.

At the end of the song she leaned in and whispered something in his ear; Baltar nodded and unwound his arm from around her waist, allowing her to make her way over to where Lee was standing.

"A girl's liable to get the wrong idea if you keep staring at her like that, Captain," she said.

A slow smile spread across Lee's lips. "And what idea is that, Lieutenant?" he asked, reaching out and pulling her towards him.

"That you are thinking of all manner of dirty little things to do to her as soon as you can find a way to get her alone," she whispered into his ear.

Lee shifted his head back and arched an eyebrow at her.

Kara smirked. "Too bad you're already ten minutes late relieving Racetrack so she can come join in the festivities."

He looked down at his watch. "Frak!"

She laughed and twisted herself out of his half-embrace. 

"We'll finish this later?" he asked.

She smiled at him and nodded. _Later_ was all she said before turning and making her way back towards the dance floor.

*

Lee glanced between Kara's retreating form and the mixture of contempt and jealousy playing across Baltar's face. He fought the urge to bang his head back against the wall and wondered how he could have been so naïve as to believe things with her could be different this time around.

*

It had been like this since flight school. Theirs was an intricate series of back and forth steps that had he been feeling generous, he might have described as a dance, though a sparring match was probably a more accurate descriptor. Either way, by the time they both graduated, he could perform them with his eyes closed, anticipating which direction she would spiral off into when he made a particular move.

They'd banter and flirt, allow touches and glances to linger, and give hugs goodbye that would last a beat too long. 

When things went too far, when they got too close, when Lee pushed too much, when Kara gave in for a moment their delicately webbed bonds would tatter and her defenses would build back up. They'd then spend weeks avoiding one another until Kara grew bored or Lee apologized and the cycle would start anew.

* 

He found her on the hanger deck, fiddling with the captured raider. She bit her lower lip as she worked and Lee fought warring desires to both punch her and kiss her. 

He hadn't thought he'd come there to pick a fight. He just wanted to understand, wanted to make her explain why she did it. 

Why now, when they had been dancing this particular dance for two months. She should have backed away long before this. She should have picked some nonsense fight, gone off to ignore him, or frakked some random stranger with enough fanfare to be sure he'd hear about it by the following morning.

But this time she hadn't backed down, she hadn't pushed him away. If anything, she drew him in closer. In turn, he allowed himself to believe - to hope - the outcome might somehow be different. Instead it had just taken longer to culminate. He should have seen it coming. None of this should have been a surprise. He just wanted so badly for it to be different this time. He wanted to reach out and touch her and know that she'd relax into it rather than recoil as if burned.

In the end, it was her all-too-casual shrug and feigned nonchalance that set him over the edge. He wanted a reaction, any reaction not this cool indifference. He wanted this to make sense.

"Oh, it is just like old times, Kara," he spit out. "Like when you got drunk and you couldn't keep your hands off that major from wherever -"

He hadn't even known he was going to say it. He hadn't meant to bring that up and tried to ignore the hurt expression that crossed her face right before she stepped forward and took a swing.

*

Lee had been two weeks out of flight school and was about to set off on his first commission - an assignment with a viper squadron assigned to the Olympia.

His friends had decided to take him out to a local bar to celebrate his imminent departure. As the evening wore on, and they got progressively drunker, each of them begged off in turn, leaving just him and Kara to close out the evening.

He looked up and saw her winding her way back from the bar with laden hands. She placed two shot glasses in front of him

"Are you sure we really need these?" he asked, gesturing at the glasses.

She set her two down next to his and tossed herself back into the booth, landing half in his lap. "What, want to pack it in already?"

Lee wrapped his arm around her waist and letting his fingers curl around her hip, picked up the first of the glasses. They clinked them together before knocking them against the table top and drinking them in one go.

Lee choked as the whiskey burned down the back of his throat and Kara laughed as he sputtered. 

"Having trouble there?"

He coughed. "No trouble at all," he said smiling.

Kara ran her fingers up the front of his shirt. "If I didn't know any better, Lee, I'd say you couldn't hold your liquor."

"I'm holding it just fine, thanks. What about you? Lounging across the booth like you can't sit up?"

"Don't see you complaining."

"'m not," he replied before leaning in to kiss her. And to Lee's surprise she kissed him back. 

It was sloppy and tasted entirely too much of whiskey but was still better than anything his imagination had supplied up to this point. He was pulling her the rest of the way into his lap when she broke the kiss and pushed herself up and away from the table.

"I can't," she said. "Not like this, Lee."

She turned and walked out the door before he could manage to move or formulate any sort of protest.

*

Lee had barely begun his morning coffee when his roommate stumbled into their kitchen and started to tell him he had seen Kara with Major Kythira the night before. Lee left for the Olympia two days later without saying goodbye.

*

_That's why you don't win._

His father's words from the morning rattled around his head as Lee watched the empty space where Kara and the Raider had been barely moments before. 

He felt the overwhelming urge to laugh - at himself, at the situation, at the thought that he ever had any control. 

Instead he shook his head and pointed his viper back towards the Galactica.


End file.
